Rating: 
Summary: What can be said?
Review: This book...this book is easily on par with Gulliver's Travels. It's a startling tale of the depravity of human nature...The first time I read it, I thought -- that was slow. Too slow. But now, months later, I realise that I have gone through life more and it's like -- wow, that was in that book. Wow, that book was right. Wow that book is applicable to -xxx-. Wow, that book has so much philosophical consequence. The writing -- dare I venture another "wow"? -- was absolutely incredible. Books don't get any better. Friedman writes with all the authority of a master. Wow.
Rating:
Summary: How Many Excellent Books Can One Person Write?
Review: This is the first of a train of excellent books (In Conquest Born, The Madness Season, Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows) by C. S. Friedman. All of these books are very different from each other. This is pure science fiction, The Madness Season is mostly science fiction with generous doses of several other genres, and the Coldfire Trilogy is mostly fantasy with a smattering of science fiction. All excellent. This book can probably be best summarized by a passage on page 276: "The ancient Braxana would have valued such an enmity. They had created elaborate rituals to formalize the confrontation of equals, in order to increase its destructive/constructive power. Such rituals hadn't been used in centuries, perhaps millennia. No k'airth had existed since the Braxana warriors left their native steppes and were absorbed by civilization; in the complexity of modern society, paired enmity had ceased to be valued. Until now."
Rating:
Summary: How Many Excellent Books Can One Person Write?
Review: This is the first of a train of excellent books (In Conquest Born, The Madness Season, Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows) by C. S. Friedman. All of these books are very different from each other. This is pure science fiction, The Madness Season is mostly science fiction with generous doses of several other genres, and the Coldfire Trilogy is mostly fantasy with a smattering of science fiction. All excellent. This book can probably be best summarized by a passage on page 276: "The ancient Braxana would have valued such an enmity. They had created elaborate rituals to formalize the confrontation of equals, in order to increase its destructive/constructive power. Such rituals hadn't been used in centuries, perhaps millennia. No k'airth had existed since the Braxana warriors left their native steppes and were absorbed by civilization; in the complexity of modern society, paired enmity had ceased to be valued. Until now."
Rating:
Summary: One of the best sci-fi books ever
Review: This starts out as a slightly confusing book because you wonder how all the different events described have any relation. Eventually they do all connect, though, and the result shows the brilliance of C.S. Friedman as a writer. Her world-building abilities are fantastic. The cruelty of the Braxins is thrilling and at some times unsettling. But shouldn't a good book affect you emotionally in some way?
Rating:
Summary: One of the best sci-fi books ever
Review: This starts out as a slightly confusing book because you wonder how all the different events described have any relation. Eventually they do all connect, though, and the result shows the brilliance of C.S. Friedman as a writer. Her world-building abilities are fantastic. The cruelty of the Braxins is thrilling and at some times unsettling. But shouldn't a good book affect you emotionally in some way?
| 
